Bill Kristol calls the release of the CIA Interrogation Memos "Pathetic"

Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol jumps pretty ugly on the release of CIA "Torture" Memos. Calls it pathetic and asks ... "Are we at war or not? My guess is the young President would say "not".

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• CIA
• Interrogation
• Torture
• Bill Kristol

[rmccay88]

@jksonny

Because it shows who ordered it and who broke the law and should be prosecuted. The last administration, just like the one now, has the attitude that they are totally immune from the law and will trample on the Constitution all in the name of "keeping us safe."

[jksonny]

Kristol is correct. What was the point of releasing the memos? And what was in them that was so terrible, anyway?

[p3snooper]

This is Pox News. And Kristol, co-founder of PNAC and scum of the right wing. What more needs be said?

[anon9871]

bill kristol is pathetic

[SailorBarsoom]

Different people who were there give differing accounts.

But you know what? None of this matters. Nobody is going to pay any price for these war crimes. I guess Curtis LeMay was right: the only real war crime is to lose.

I will not reply to any more messages in this thread. Neither of us is going to convince the other, and none of it matters anyway. Nothing matters.

[schradersl2]

That's not an issue with Kiriakou. He never performed the waterboarding. He interrogated Zubaydah. When Zubaydah refused to give up info about AQ, Kiriakou warned him harsher methods would ensue. Zubaydah still refused. Kiriakou was then authorized to waterboard, but he declined. Another operative waterboarded Zubaydah. Kiriakou interrogated him afterwards, and "like a light switch" Zubaydah became cooperative offering intel on AQ Se Asia attacks. Read the interviews on ABC News and the WashPo.

[SailorBarsoom]

There are differing accounts from people present, Kiriakou being one of them, about how often the guy was waterboarded, what else was done, and how useful the information was. They can't all be right.

You say that Kiriakou has "no political beef." You conveniently left out that he has a don't-want-to-be-locked-up-for­-twenty-years beef. The idea that somebody might fudge a little when he's staring down the barrel of a two-decade prison sentence seems to bee more than you can acknowledge.

[schradersl2]

The legal definion of torture is "extreme pain and suffering". Those methods are uncomfortable, sure, but none come close to the actual definition except for possibly waterboarding.

[schradersl2]

You are unbelievable. You are unwilling to listen to experts in the field of intelligence gathering and interrogation because it doesn't fit to your world view. You make an absolute claim that harsh methods never yield good intel, but when presented with an example of it working you say he's lying. You lack the ability to reason.

[SailorBarsoom]

Here are the two relevant sentences:

"He was directly involved with the questioning of Zubaydah, one of the 3 people waterboarded."

and

"ACCORDING TO KIRIAKOU, Zubaydah would not talk." (emphasis added)

Again, I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that this man would try to justify what he himself was involved in.

There are conflicting accounts of how long Zubayda was waterboarded, what else was done to him, and how useful any information gotten from him was.

Remember all those flying witches.